An internal affairs captain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told a federal jury Monday that the FBI jeopardized safety at the Men’s Central Jail by having a deputy smuggle a cellphone to an inmate-informer.

Capt. Tom Carey of the Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau said he was surprised to hear that a cellphone found in the possession of inmate Anthony Brown had been smuggled into the jail by a deputy who was part of a secret FBI probe into allegations of corruption within the jail walls.

“To leave a cellphone in the jail — I just couldn’t believe they would do that,” Carey testified.

An inmate with a cellphone could “compromise the safety of the facility,” he said, telling the jury that “there are other ways” to carry on an undercover operation.

“It just did not make sense,” Carey said.

Carey was called to the stand by the defense on day five of the federal criminal trial of Deputy James Sexton, who is charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on both counts. Sexton is the first of 20 current and former sheriff’s deputies charged in February with corruption and civil rights offenses to face a jury.

Closing arguments from both sides are expected Tuesday.

Prosecutors contend that because Sexton, 29, had advanced knowledge of the jailhouse computer system, he was crucial to a scheme to block Brown from being transferred into federal custody and placed before a grand jury.

To keep Brown hidden within the jail system, Sexton used the computer to falsify the inmate’s name and characteristics several times, never entering fingerprints for the new identities, prosecutors allege.

Attorneys for Sexton have argued that the deputy, who had been on the job for about three years, should be acquitted because he was merely following orders from his superiors and had no intention of obstructing a federal investigation.

Earlier Monday, the county’s former undersheriff testified under prosecution questioning that he could not recall exactly when he first heard that Brown might be working with the FBI.

Paul Tanaka, who was second-in-command of the Sheriff’s Department before resigning last year, told the jury repeatedly that he didn’t remember when he found out that Brown had been moved throughout the jail system in an alleged attempt to keep him from testifying.

“I don’t recall this meeting you are referencing,” Tanaka said in one of many similar exchanges. “As I sit here now, I don’t remember.”

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Tanaka, the mayor of Gardena who is now running for the position vacated by ex-Sheriff Lee Baca, testified Friday that he “didn’t see anything inappropriate” in Brown’s treatment.

“There was an order given that he had to be protected,” Tanaka told the jury Monday.

Sexton is charged along with six other jailhouse deputies with enacting the cat-and-mouse game to hide Brown from federal agents. The other defendants are expected to face trial Wednesday.